Driving research

Over the past two decades, DaimlerChrysler's research vehicles have been pushing the bounds of engineering innovation-and convention.

The place was Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance, which divides Germany and Switzerland; the building was a hangar close to the Zeppelin facility; the event was the bringing together by DaimlerChrysler (DCX) of its major research vehicles of the past 24 years; and the opportunity was for journalists to drive, or be driven in, several of them.

Some looked zany, some just bizarre, only a few seemed reasonably conventional, but all were-or are-technologically significant. They included the Short-Distance Vehicle, the side-stick-controlled F200 Imagination, the drive-by-wire side-stick SL, the F300 Life-Jet, the F400 Carving (plus the mule used for its suspension system development), and the F500 Mind. Of these, the F500 is now particularly significant, while the F400 two-seater of 2001 has wheels that tilt like a motorcycle's (or like “carving” skis) to improve dynamic cornering capability.